Crimson Petals
by hell-butterfly
Summary: Even if the world is smothered by the flames of warfare, pure roses shall still blossom in the depth of your heart. [GinXRangiku][futurefic, character death]


**Crimson Petals**

Disclaimer: You know that it doesn't belong to me.

A Gin and Rangiku fic. Judgment Day scenario. What they will do when the world is going to end.

-

Even if the world is smothered by the flames of warfare

Pure roses shall still blossom in the depth of your heart

-

He stood on the deserted battlefield, the sweet scent of blood floating around him.

The air was heavy, a disquieting quietness hanging around her, suffocating her.

Slowly lifting her head, blood still dripping from her lips, Rangiku met the smiling slits on the face of Ichimaru Gin.

'_I really wouldn't have minded been bound for a while longer…'_

Slowly, very slowly, she lifted her zankaputou sword and directed it at his heart.

'_See you…Rangiku…'_

He didn't move, not even a muscle. He just smiled his usual impenetrable smile, unwavering, unmoved.

'…_Sorry...'_

Her throat felt very dry.

'I…I can kill you now. Anytime.' She said in a strangled voice.

Sill, he didn't move.

The tip of her zankaputou pressed more tightly against his heart.

'So you won't forgive me then…Rangiku?'

His voice was calm, steady, but it made her hand tremble.

'You are…no more than a traitor to me.' She said, hardly able to keep her voice steady.

It was the voice that had echoed in her dreams for so many times, but now that she heard it just next to her, it suddenly sounded so distant.

She tried to steady her hand, tried to stop her hand falling inch by inch. But she had to do it, she had to kill this man who had betrayed them, who had been condemned for trying to kill Hinamori, Hitsugaya and Rukia and allying with Aizen Sousuke.

Her conscience was wavering.

It was painful. This mental struggle.

_Who are you then?_ She whispered. _Are you the Gin I know back in the days when we were children?_

_Or are you, somebody else?_

They stood in this state for a long time, minutes, hours, perhaps years, she aiming her zankaputou at his chest, he smiling without any attempt to fight back.

Then he broke the silence suddenly.

'So even you won't forgive me, Rangiku?'

She didn't answer. She was conscious the fact that if she was to be lured to speak, her defenses would break down completely.

A soft sound issued from his lips. Perhaps a sigh.

Her eyes widened.

Ichimaru Gin had opened his eyes. The eyes that she had not seen again for hundreds of years. The eyes that had scrutinized her once, that had mesmerized her.

The gleaming red eyes of a fox. Frighteningly shrewd, yet also unmistakably charming.

She felt that she had been suddenly electrified, pierced by his sharp stare.

'I will not regret…' He said in a low voice, 'If the last person that I ever see closely is you…Rangiku…'

And suddenly, a fiery rose blossomed at his chest, violently sparkling in the darkness. Bitterly sweet.

His eyes curved into a smile, not at all like the one that he had worn all these years. Not sly, not mysteriously evil, not falsely cold. It was a smile that was true and sincere, purified of all sins and wrongs.

Falling forward, his lips brushing against her cheek, Gin said in a final whisper, 'Will you not forgive me at last, Rangiku? And will you not…forget me?'

He sighed, and the wind carried off his last words.

'_I really wouldn't have minded been bound for a while longer…'_

'_See you…Rangiku…'_

'…_Sorry…'_

She felt his final warmth dispersing as crimson petals whirled around her. She held him close, taking in every last fragment of the warmth that had been so familiar and so foreign to her.

Cold tears slid down her cheeks and mingled with his blood and she muttered his name again and again in a desperate whisper.

Slowly, she lifted her zankaputou to her eyes, his blood still dripping from the tip.

'Why won't I forgive you, Gin…And why, will I ever forget you…'

He had been her only light, her only hope, her only longing.

Slowly, with determination, she drew the blade across her throat.

Smiling, she fell forward on to his shoulder, and her eyes slowly closed.

Only the crimson petals flew around her, and the lingering scent of the crimson roses.

-End-

My first Gin and Rangiku fic. I like to do angsty things, and I've long thought of trying it out on them.

Please read and review!

-butterfly from hell


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